British Indian artist Bharti Kher has been commissioned by Powerhouse Parramatta to create a large-scale public artwork for the museum, which is set to open later this year in Parramatta, Western Sydney. Titled *Tree of Life*, the seven-meter-tall bronze sculpture features four stacked heads and incorporates clay fragments from figurines found in Indian secondhand markets, drawing on themes of ancestral memory, interconnectedness, and community.
The commission matters because it marks a significant public art project for a major new cultural institution in a diverse area where over a third of residents have Indian ancestry. Kher’s work, which extends her *Intermediaries* series, uses the sacred tree motif from Hindu mythology to celebrate cultural hybridity and create a meeting place that honors both the site’s Indigenous history and its contemporary multicultural community.